Specialization between Family and State Intergenerational Time Transfers in Western Europe

Abstract

Intergenerational time transfers can be differentiated and divided into two support forms: help and care activities. Adult children support their elderly parents with more or less intensive and widely differing transfers ranging from help with household chores and paperwork to personal care. However, elderly people are also an important source of intergenerational support, as they help their children by looking after the grandchildren for example. In general intergenerational solidarity patterns are influenced by opportunity, need, family and culturalcontextual structures, which have differing impacts on help and care: Care is mainly depending on the need structures of the receiver while help activities to parents and children are primarily influenced by the opportunity structures of the giver. Additionally, using the SHARE data, logistic multilevel modeling allows national help and care levels to be traced back to the provision of public services. The empirical findings support the “specialization hypothesis”: A higher national level of social services coincides with less intensive help and more demanding care. Well-developed welfare states thus lower the risk of an overburdening of the family and secure the overall support of older people and young families through efficient collaboration between family and state.